Gradually Ramping It Up On The Rower

Over the weekend I did my first longer row at 5k, and I posted about it. My plan is to get at least a couple of these longer rows in a week and slowly ramp up the time/distance and the pace.

At the same time I am trying to get stronger pulls, which, in my experience, will certainly come with time as my body finds efficiency. A side effect of that is the stroke rate will drop.

My original plan when I got changed and went downstairs was to do the five thousand meters again. I was going to push it a little harder than last Sunday. I sat on the rower getting things set up, then I remembered that Street Parking was simply the row for a half an hour, one that I had done in the past and recorded.

That made more sense for me to do, as I don’t have to see the distance on my watch. I could just sort of close my eyes and get into the zen of it and let the timer do the work. The clock will let me know when it’s time to stop. I had done this one several times in the past.

It was nice and cool in the garage this morning, and it’s not humid. These past couple of nights in the 40s have been refreshing after the miserable summer.

My pace started off just a smidgen faster than Sunday, and the fastest 500-meter pace was a second or two faster than on Sunday. That was a good surprise. I actually don’t have a good internal feel for pacing. Strangely enough, I know about where I am when it comes time to do a WOD but not with actual pacing. With the rower connected to my watch, I can glance at that and see where I am distance-wise, and I did that a few times today.

The annoying thing is the watch doesn’t get a good heart rate reading with the pulling action. It moves my wrist too much. I had my chest strap on, but that seems to be malfunctioning too. I tried changing the battery recently, and that didn’t seem to help improve it. While I felt I kept my heart rate in check, the average certainly wasn’t 92 bpm. And the max was surely more than 100 bpm. Maybe I will try washing it off first.

The row itself felt great. I felt like I could have kept going and considered it, but I want to do things gradually. The intensity was probably too low too, but again, I would like to ease into this longer stuff. When I went to record the results, I was pleasantly surprised that it was not my slowest one I have done. It wasn’t the fastest either but pretty much in the middle of the pack. Not bad for not trying!

Forever grateful that we have the rower and so many other options for my fitness available to me right there anytime I want to use them. Even more grateful that I started years ago and consistently use many of them. Not all at the same time, but I do mix most of the equipment in from time to time.

Music today was Ad Nauseam.